She tapped his name. The line rang once and then he answered, “Thank God.”
“Is Mom okay? Did something happen?”
“Yes.” His breath crackled against the mouthpiece.
“Yes to which one?” The light turned green and she hit the gas too hard. She flew through the intersection. The back end of the car bumped against the high hill in the center of the cross street. Callie pulled the car to the side of the road, and slammed it into park. She was less concerned about fucking up Beck’s beastly car, and a whole lot more concerned that she was driving the wrong direction if her family needed her.
“Mom is fine.” He coughed, and his voice became clearer. “Something happened at work.”
“Something?” She dangled the lure because asking why his work issues required a phone call would come across as hostile.
Fabric rustled. That didn’t tell her shit. “Josh? What’s going on?”
“He’s here.” The hollow whisper was one Josh used for secrets. He must have his hand cupped around his mouth.
Anxiety pooled static at her waist. The potential bite waiting for more information. “Who?”
“Nate.” The name a filthy word forced out in the front pew of Sunday Mass.
The static shifted to sharp spikes poised to pierce the skin. “Has he seen you yet? What’s he doing?”
“I didn’t think it was a big deal, Callie. Adam’s such a good dude. He showed up with sandwiches for the crew at lunch. He asked about Mom, and I wasn’t thinking…”
Prick prick prick at her belly. “Are you safe?”
His words were strangled. “I don’t know, sis. I told him Mom was in the hospital, and didn’t think about how he knew she was injured. I didn’t miss work or tell any of the guys here yet. We don’t talk about that kind of shit at the job site.”
“Is he still there?” Callie put the car back into drive, and pulled out from the curb.
“He’s been in the boss’s trailer with Adam for a while.”
The Charmer’s troubles would have to wait. The soul dealer would have to wait. Family came first, and Nate had already endangered her mother. Callie wasn’t about to let him get his hands on her brother again. The Delgados were done with these goddamn gangsters. “I’m on my way. Are you at the same job you told me about a couple weeks ago?”
Josh confirmed the address. “It might not be safe to come here,” he added.
Safe was a long-lost relic in her life. She wasn’t about to find the arc of the covenant either. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Just focus on working until then.”
Josh’s sharp inhalation worried her, but he didn’t argue.
Callie disconnected the call, and immediately placed a fresh one to Derek.
“Callie?” He used her name. At least she didn’t have to tell him to be on high alert.
How much could she say on the phone? If he knew she were heading to meet Nate, he’d probably beat her to the job site. It wasn’t safe to leave the Charmer’s place unmanned, though.
“I’m going to be a little late back to the shop.” Not a lie.
“What’s wrong?”
So much. “Josh called. I need to make a quick pit stop.”
“Zara?”
“Thankfully no. Adam showed at his work, and I’m going to make sure Josh understands why he needs to avoid that asshole.” Enough truth to keep her from going full dirtbag. Building trust was arduous, and slipping was not an option.
“Where is his job again?”
Callie gave him the address. Because honesty.
“That’s not too far.” He was probably mentally mapping the best path to get there.
“I don’t think I’ll be long. Beck should be back any second, and he’s bringing a present.”
Derek’s short grunt kicked her chest. He could read her so well. “If you’re not back in thirty minutes, I’m coming for you.”
“I figured.” He couldn’t see her smile, but she was fairly certain he could hear it.
“Be safe.”
The construction company Josh worked for had been hired to renovate one of the lush resort hotels downtown. The building had once been a Cortean monastery. Why people paid hundreds of dollars to stay in a cramped room made for a person with no earthly possessions was beyond her. They did, though, and now Josh was helping replace support beams and update bathrooms. He might have been able to convince her it was honest work if the trailer parked out front wasn’t holding Gem City’s new crime king and his lackey—and if those men hadn’t recently mutilated her mother.
The workmen were working on updating the gazebos off the patio. Wood peeked from the edge of tarps. Callie edged past the trailer, and hurried beyond the stacks of lumber. Josh was off to the edge of the patio. He was far from the clamped lamps, but his long, lean frame was unmistakable. At least to his baby sister.
He lifted his chin. The bro move was a welcome and a warning. She didn’t continue winding back toward the shadows, but instead paused near one of the heaping blue tarps. Josh met her there. He tugged her around the edge of the lumber pallet. His hand was surprisingly strong on her arm. At least he had to be eating again to be regaining strength. The wildness in his eyes, though, suggested his internal reserves of strength were waning. The flood lamps cast his cheek in sharp relief, but let her only catch the wide halos of the whites of his eyes.
“Who drove you here?” his whisper snapped.
“What does that matter? You had an emergency and I hauled ass.”
His steel-toed boots tapped a tiny trill on the brick, but he only stared at her.
Fine. “I drove myself.”
He stopped the drilling glare and started surveying the construction site. “You get a new car?”
Josh had a way of avoiding his problems, even now after he’d called her in a panic. She couldn’t let him toe into this problem.
“No. Circumstances required me
